The Stromboli Eight

This is a photograph of The Stromboli Eight. It's from 2002 when I lived in New Haven, Connecticut and led creative writing workshops in my home. Here you see our collective of very talented writers and friends. Jamie Brandli named us The Stromboli Eight--a reference to delicious pizza, as well as the John Sayles film, The Secaucus Seven which was a nod to The Chicago Seven.

You see how art (and pizza) inspires art, and then this inspires more art and so on and so on. 

At the conclusion of each weekend, we would walk down the street to the mailbox. And then, my writers  ceremoniously kissed their envelopes goodbye and good luck and mailed out their short stories to the journal of their choice. After this, we would return to the house and clink champagne flutes and laugh and toast to our courage and fortitude.

It is an act of courage and fortitude--to send original work out into the world. At the very least, it's an admission that we want to be accepted. We want someone to get us. Yes, we want to be published, but more than this, we want to be known and  seen in all our beauty and flaws--the pretty and the not-so-pretty. 

And yet, sending our work out into the cold, cruel world can be a mighty scary venture. It lifts us out of the warm cocoon of creation and pushes us into the harsh light of day. And many of us would just rather not enter the fray. But truly, my friends--if we do not enter the fray, only the boisterous bullies of the marketplace get to hold the megaphone and speak.  

The world needs to hear from more voices--the voices of the sensitive, the insecure, the shy, the disenfranchised and the seemingly deeply flawed. The world needs to hear from you.

Creative friends, your assignment for this week is to jump into the cold frigid waters of the fray. By this, I mean apply for that grant, that residency. Send out your  story. Be brave.

And when you have done this, celebrate.

And as always, have fun.

Love,

Jamie